A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from August 13, 2005
Zagat (Za-GAT)
Eugene and Nina Zagat started publishing their Zagat Survey of restaurants in the early 1980s. It's since grown to other cities, and it's no longer a survey of only restaurants.

A rhyme about how to pronounce the name "Zagat" -- it rhymes with "fat" -- was published in August 2005. Someone who uses Zagat or who participates in a Zagat survey is called a "Zagateer."


Wikipedia: Zagat
Zagat Survey /zəˈɡæt/ was established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979 as a way to collect and correlate the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering New York City, the Zagats surveyed their friends. As of 2005, the Zagat Survey included 70 cities, with reviews based on the input of 250,000 individuals reporting over the years. In addition to restaurants, Zagat guides rate hotels, nightlife, shopping, zoos, music, movies, theaters, golf courses, and airlines. The guides are sold in book form, and formerly as a paid subscription on its web site.

As of May 2012, as part of its acquisition by Google in September 2011, Zagat reviews and ratings became tightly integrated into Google's services, and the Zagat.com site became free to use.

Eater NY
Closed
Wednesday, August 3, 2005, by Ben Leventhal
Zagat* dropped their monthly newsletter for paid subscribers yesterday.
(...)
*It's za-GAT, by the way; not ZAG-at and never Zagat's.

Eater NY
Za-GAT to be Kidding Us
Monday, August 8, 2005, by Lockhart
(...)
before i went to work there, someone told me this way to remember how to pronounce the family name. it's so moving that i've never forgotten it:

he's big, he's fat
it's warm where he sat
that's tim zagat.

KaufmaNet
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
How to Pronounce Zagat
I always wondered the correct pronunciation. According to "Eater", this handy dandy little rhyme will help:

he's big, he's fat
it's warm where he sat
that's tim zagat.

Good to know!

20 November 1981, New York (NY) Times, "Eating Out: Their Way of Life" by Fred Ferretti, pg. A32:
Eugene H. Zagat Jr. and his wife, Nina, are both lawyers, both food lovers and over the last four years dedicated restaurant-goers. They now provately publish an annual survey of the city's restaurants, which includes their own opnions and those of 275 respondents on whose critiques the food letter is based.

14 August 1985, New York (NY) Times, "Restaurant Guides: Personalized Views of New York Scene" by Richard W. Stevenson, pg. C8:
Back in New York in the 1970's, the Zagats joined a loosely organized group of food and wine lovers. One night, someone in the group "made a nasty crack about professional food critics not being reliable, and that we could probably do better with a survey of people we knew," recounted Mr. Zagat.

Out of that comment grew a survey of about 100 people, all of tehm acquaintances who considered themselves connoisseurs. The Zagats compiled the results, complete with a rating syste4m and short comments on about 75 restaurants drawn from the survey. The couple mimeographed the final product and gave it away to anyone who wanted it.

Word of the guide quickly spread, with more people asking to participate in the survey and to get copies of the results. Finally, according to Mr. Zagat, "In 1982 Nina said, 'Look, let's organize this a little better and at least make it deductible.'"

15 September 1985, Los Angeles (CA) Times, pg. U96:
EDITORS LET THE PUBLIC
RATE N. Y. RESTAURANTS
By COLMAN ANDREWS
Everybody wants to be a restaurant critic, right? But to the best of my knowledge, only Tim and Nina Zagat of New York have figured out a way to make a buck out of this curious communal desire. The Zagats are editors and publishers of the pocket-sized Zagat New York City Restaurant Survey, which is based not on the pronouncements of some snooty, so-called professional critics like me, but on the results of detailed restaurant questionnaires filled out for the Zagats by some 1,510 miscellaneous New Yorkers of a critically amateur persuasion.

(Trademark)
Word Mark ZAGAT SURVEY
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: restaurant, hotel and travel guide information incorporated into computer software and CD ROM disks. FIRST USE: 19921000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19921000
IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: series of restaurant, hotel, travel and shopping guide books. FIRST USE: 19881100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19881100
(CANCELLED) IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: [ restaurant guide information contained in on-line computer services ]. FIRST USE: 19890000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19890000
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 74611147
Filing Date December 14, 1994
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition October 24, 1995
Change In Registration CHANGE IN REGISTRATION HAS OCCURRED
Registration Number 1948630
Registration Date January 16, 1996
Owner (REGISTRANT) Zagat, Nina S. INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 4 Columbus Circle New York NEW YORK 10019
(REGISTRANT) Zagat, Eugene H., Jr. INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 4 Columbus Circle New York NEW YORK 10019
(LAST LISTED OWNER) ZAGAT SURVEY, LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY BY ASSIGNMENT DELAWARE 4 COLUMBUS CIRCLE NEW YORK NEW YORK 10019
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "SURVEY" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. PARTIAL SECT 8 (6-YR).
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

(Trademark)
Word Mark ZAGAT
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: restaurant, hotel and travel guide information incorporated into computer software and CD-ROM disks. FIRST USE: 19921000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19921000
IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: series of restaurant, hotel, travel and shopping guide books. FIRST USE: 19821100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19821100
IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: restaurant guide information contained in on-line computer services. FIRST USE: 19890000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19890000
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 74611148
Filing Date December 14, 1994
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition October 24, 1995
Registration Number 1972492
Registration Date May 7, 1996
Owner (REGISTRANT) Zagat, Nina S. INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 4 Columbus Circle New York NEW YORK 10019
(REGISTRANT) Zagat, Eugene H., Jr. INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 4 Columbus Circle New York NEW YORK 10019
(LAST LISTED OWNER) ZAGAT SURVEY, LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY BY ASSIGNMENT DELAWARE 4 COLUMBUS CIRCLE NEW YORK NEW YORK 10019
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record JANET SHIH HAJEK
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL-2(F)
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR).
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

(Trademark)
Word Mark ZAGAT.COM
Goods and Services IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Providing databases featuring information of specific geographic areas, restaurants, hotels, travel amenities. FIRST USE: 19981100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19981100
IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: On-line retail services featuring maps, computer software and books, relating to restaurants, hotel, and travel services, by means of a global computer network. FIRST USE: 19981100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19981100
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 75837951
Filing Date November 3, 1999
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition April 2, 2002
Registration Number 2584308
Registration Date June 25, 2002
Owner (REGISTRANT) ZAGAT SURVEY, LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY DELAWARE 4 COLUMBUS CIRCLE NEW YORK DELAWARE 10019
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record Belinda Scrimenti
Prior Registrations 1948630;1972492;2032980
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityRestaurants/Bars/Coffeehouses/Food Stores • Saturday, August 13, 2005 • Permalink


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